"Defiant Diplomacy" analyzes the relationship between the United States and Denmark as allies in World War II and the Cold War. Cast as a biography of Henrik Kauffmann (1888-1963), a Danish diplomat serving in Washington (1939-1958), the book reveals how the Roosevelt Administration's policy toward occupied Denmark was forced to address questions of paramount importance, particularly to Great Britain and Canada, regarding the general attitude of the neutral United States toward the war in Europe. The dramatic climax was President Roosevelt's secret decision in early 1941 to establish military bases in Greenland, the Danish colony that became a crucial steppingstone between the United States and Europe during World War II and a strategic focal point in the nuclear strategies of the Cold War.